Introducing O Yis

[Rik]

Verb auxiliaries
Apart from when used as an imperative, or when a verb is being used as a yes/no response to a question, every O Yis verb will come with an auxiliary verb. Auxiliary verbs are conjugated; an auxiliary consists of a stem and a suffix. Conjugation is irregular.

The auxiliary carries out several tasks: it carries information about the grammatical mood of the clause, and also some aspectual details; it also carries information about the perceived status of the person being addressed. Furthermore, some auxiliaries carry tense information (past vs non-past) encoded lexically: different stems are used for each tenses.

The auxiliary suffix changes according to the state of the verb – in other words the intentionality and/or success of a given action. A verb will be in one of five states of completion:

• -ic, the possible or conditional state – an action may or may not happen
• -(mb)e, the intended state – definite plans have been made to undertake an action
• -a, the incomplete or imperfective state – the action has started but not yet completed
• -uk, the complete or perfective state – the action has finished (as far as possible) or stopped, but there's no indication of whether the result is satisfactory
• -(t)an, the satisfactory or telic state – the action has been completed and the outcome is satisfactory

The auxiliary stem carries information about how the speaker views the action. This information can be generic (I tell you, I ask you) or can carry details of the perceived veracity of the statement (I know this first hand; I believe this is what happened). The action can also be optative, jussive or hortative ( like, need, let, endure, want). The default is the tell/say/ask series of stems. Different stems are used depending on the status of the person being addressed and, for some series, the tense of the action.

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A table of auxiliary verb stems (part 1)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
spoken to:          say               believe           know
                    past    non-past  past    non-past  past    non-past
------------------------------------------------------------------------
children            hil-    hve-      seŋ-    sen-      semb-   seb-
close family        hil-    hve-      seŋ-    sen-      semb-   seb-
family friends      hil-    hve-      seŋ-    sen-      semb-   seb-
extended family     hi-     ha        seŋ-    sen-      semb-   seb-
friends             hi-     ha-       seŋ-    sen-      semb-   seb-
colleagues          hi-     ha-       seŋ-    sen-      semb-   seb-
acquaintances       hi-     ha-       seŋva-  seva-     semb-   seb-
strangers           hit-    hat-      seŋva-  seva-     semb-   seb-
authority figures   hit-    hat-      seŋva-  seva-     svemb-  svo-
social leaders      hit-    hat-      seŋva-  seva-     svemb-  svo-

 
A table of auxiliary verb stems (part 2)
------------------------------------------------------------
spoken to:          like    need      let     endure    want
------------------------------------------------------------
children            xik-    ki-       aq-     vear-     div-
close family        xik-    ki-       a-      vear-     div-
family friends      xi-     ki-       a-      vear-     div-
extended family     xi-     nek-      a-      vear-     div-
friends             xi-     nek-      a-      vear-     div-
colleagues          xel-    nek-      a-      vear-     kla-
acquaintances       xel-    nek-      a-      vear-     kla-
strangers           xel-    nek-      a-      vear-     kla-
authority figures   xel-    njek-     aq-     vear-     kla-
social leaders      xel-    njek-     aq-     vear-     kla-


A table showing all combinations of auxiliary stems and suffixes
--------------------------------------------------------
        |  condit.  intend    imperf.  perf.    telic
--------------------------------------------------------
hil-    |  hilic    hile      hila     hiluk    hiltan
hi-     |  híc      himbe     hia      hiuk     hitan
hit-    |  hitic    hite      hita     hituk    híttan
        |
hve-    |  hveic    hvembe    hvea     hveuk    hvetan
ha-     |  haic     hambe     há       hauk     hatan
hat-    |  hatic    hate      hata     hatuk    háttan
        |
seŋ-    |  seŋic    seŋe      seŋa     seŋuk    seŋan
seŋva-  |  seŋvaic  seŋvambe  seŋvá    seŋvauk  seŋván
        |
sen-    |  senic    sene      sena     senuk    senan
seva-   |  sevaic   sevambe   sevá     sevauk   seván
        |
semb-   |  sembic   sembe     semba    sembuk   semban
svemb-  |  svembic  svembe    svemba   svembuk  svemban
        |
seb-    |  sebic    sebe      seba     sebuk    seban
svo-    |  svoic    svombe    svoa     svouk    svotan
        |
xik-    |  xikic    xike      xika     xikuk    xikan
xi-     |  xíc      ximbe     xia      xiuk     xitan
xel-    |  xelic    xelbe     xela     xeluk    xeltan
        |
ki-     |  kík      kimbe     kia      kiuk     kitan
nek-    |  nekic    neke      neka     nekuk    nekan
njek-   |  njekic   njeke     njeka    njekuk   njekan
        |
aq-     |  aqic     aqe       aqa      aquk     aqan
a-      |  aic      ambe      á        auk      atan
        |
vear-   |  vearic   veare     veara    vearuk   veartan
        |
div-    |  divic    dive      diva     divuk    divan
kla-    |  klaic    klambe    klá      klauk    klatan

[Rik]

há ney itzjer dzir Már
Mary is walking

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há           ney  itzjer     dzir Már
say.5.imperf walk northwards Ms   Mary

hia ney itzjer dzir Már dzir Dzán idzim
Mary and Jane were walking together

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hia           ney  itzjer     dzir Már  dzir Dzán idzim
said.5.imperf walk northwards Ms   Mary Ms   Jane accompanies

hiuk ney dzir Már y mein dzabber ipjamjer
Mary walked to the shops

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hiuk        ney  dzir Már  y   mein dzabber ipjamjer 
said.5.perf walk Ms   Mary the some shop    eastwards 

há glas dzir Dzán y ridza jab
Jane lives in the town

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há           glas   dzir Dzán y   ridza jab
say.5.imperf reside Ms   Jane the town  within

klambe roet glas dzeo Dzon ý dzabber itoxol
John wants to live above a shop

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klambe        roet  glas   dzeo Dzon ý dzabber itoxol
want.5.intend start reside Mr   John a shop    above

aic glas g'o trop úrag ó riant ac kanó jab
I could have lived in a big house

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aic          glas   g'o trop    úrag ó riant ac  kanó    jab
let.5.condit reside a-while-ago I    a house has bigness within

há hjus in harf em dzeo Petyr ín máv
Peter's dog chases a cat

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há           hjus  in  harf em     dzeo Petyr ín máv
say.5.imperf chase the dog  of.the Mr   Peter a  cat

há hjus dzeo Dzon in harf em dzir Petyr
John chases Peter's dog

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há           hjus  dzeo Dzon in  harf em     dzir Petyr
say.5.imperf chase Mr   John the dog  of.the Mr   Peter

há qlais dzeo Petyr in harf o riant jab
Peter traps the dog in the house (the dog is caught in the house)

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há           qlais dzeo Petyr in  harf o   riant jab
say.5.imperf trap  Mr   Peter the dog  the house inside

há qlais dzeo Petyr in harf m'o riant jab
Peter traps the dog in the house (the dog in the house is caught)

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há           qlais dzeo Petyr in  harf m'o      riant jab
say.5.imperf trap  Mr   Peter the dog  that.the house inside

há qubba dzir Már ze dzeo Petyr in máv irt
Mary gives Peter the cat (Mary gives the cat to Peter)

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há           qubba dzir Már  ze  dzeo Petyr in  máv irt
say.5.imperf give  Ms   Mary the Mr   Peter the cat for

há qubba dzeo Dzon m'e to rat ucem ni réŋg irt
John catches the ball with his hands (no direct object)

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há           qubba dzeo Dzon m'e      to   rat  ucem ni  réŋg irt
say.5.imperf catch Mr   John with.the pair hand his  the ball for

há hjuseko ín máv in harf em dzeo Petyr al
a cat is being chased by Peter's dog

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há           hjuseko    ín máv in  harf em     dzeo Petyr al
say.5.imperf chase.pass a  cat the dog  of.the Mr   Peter by

há hjuseko in harf em dzeo Petyr ze dzeo Dzon al
John chases Peter's dog

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há           hjuseko    in  harf em     dzeo Petyr ze  dzeo Dzon al
say.5.imperf chase.pass the dog  of.the Mr   Peter the Mr   John by

há qlaisit in harf o riant jab ze dzeo Petyr al
the dog is trapped in the house by Peter

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há           qlaisit   in  harf o   riant jab    ze  dzeo Petyr al
say.5.imperf trap.pass the dog  the house inside the Mr   Peter by

há qlaisit in harf m'o riant jab ze dzeo Petyr al
the dog inside the house is trapped by Peter

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há           qlaisit   in  harf m'o      riant jab    ze  dzeo Petyr al
say.5.imperf trap.pass the dog  that.the house inside the Mr   Peter by

há qubbaeko dzeo Petyr in máv irt ze dzir Már al
Peter is given the cat by Mary

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há           qubbaeko  dzeo Petyr in  máv irt ze  dzir  Már  al
say.5.imperf give.pass Mr   Peter the cat for the Ms    Mary by

[Rik]

There's more, but I don't have time to format it nicely. So here's a link to an obese pdf of all the work to date, corrected to take in my latest thinking on various stuff and including a wordlist at the end.

Enjoy!


(ps Janko: the numbers are in the pdf - seek and ye shall find ...)



Mr. Coproboing and Mr. Puboboing thank you both for taking the time to read this thread.

[TomHChappell]

há ney itzjer dzir Már
Mary is walking

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há           ney  itzjer     dzir Már
say.5.imperf walk northwards Ms   Mary

You probably ought to explain here on the ZBB, as you have on the CBB, that the ".5." is a register marker; it mostly encodes who the addressee is, and in part sometimes encodes the addressee's relation to the speaker or the circumstances of the speech-act. It's really more like an honorific than like a register IMO.
You've listed your registers in a previous post, but you didn't give them numbers.

[TomHChappell]

an obese pdf of all the work to date

Also for codas, nasals and rhotics can combine with stops, fricatives and affricates
 mp mb nt nk ŋg ŋq
 rp rb rt rk rg rq rf rd rc rz rx rs rtz rdz

It looks like nasals can combine with stops, but not with fricatives or affricates. It looks like fricatives and affricates can combine with rhotics, but not with nasals.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's extremely thorough, and IMO well-thought-out.

It contains so many features I like that I'm afraid I don't have enough time or space to list them. The articles, which have to be listed with the nouns in dictionaries, is one such feature (similar to amaZulu); the titles for children and siblings/cousins and friends etc. is another; the explanation of "additive lists" or "and lists" is yet another. (Incidentally it looks like you gave an example of an "or list", but didn't say so?) There's just too much good stuff in there to talk about all of it. I'd limit my comments to just your mistakes, except I didn't see any.

The nine verb-classes are also great. They're something like Vendler classes, as you pointed out, and something like aktionsarts. You mentioned verbs having cases; I haven't seen that yet. Did you mean these classes? Your verb-classes are like genders, because the articles (and maybe also other words) must agree with them.

Your verb-articles encode "relative tense" or "anteriority", as well as "retrospective" (or "perfect") and a "subjunctive modality" (or "relative clause modality"; I'm not sure the verb-articles are necessary for other subordinate clauses, such as complement clauses or adjunct clauses?). Ordinarily, the theory-neutral, cross-linguistic name for any word or particle that modifies a verb by telling one or more of its aspect, modality/mode/mood, polarity, tense, or voice, would be "auxiliary word", rather than "article". And the relativising word would be called a "relativiser". Why did you call them "articles" instead of "auxiliaries"? Maybe you had a good reason.

"Relative tense" often has "anterior" (aka "relative past"), "simultaneous" (aka "relative present"), and "posterior" (aka "relative future") values; sometimes there are more, because anterior and posterior can be modified by degrees-of-remotenes. I think your "prior article" is an "anterior auxiliary", your "concurrent article" is a "simultaneous auxiliary", and your "post article" is a "posterior auxiliary".

Cross-linguistically and theory-neutrally, auxiliary words don't have to be verbs, but can be. Also, a clause may modify its verb with more than one auxiliary at the same time. So there'd be no problem if you call the words you've called "articles", "auxiliaries" instead. You'd just have to say that it may have one class/relative-tense/retrospective/subjunctive prefixal auxiliary that's not a verb, and also may have an auxiliary verb as a suffix; if it has neither, it's imperative.

The suffixed auxiliary, which you've said is an auxiliary verb, encodes irrealis (conditional or intended) mood, perfective/imperfective aspect, and telic aktionsart. So they are in fact auxiliaries; whether or not they also are auxiliary verbs, I haven't yet seen conclusive evidence either way. These suffixed auxiliary verbs also encode the speaker's relationship to the addressee; or, at least, the speaker's attitude to that relationship.

Can all of these suffixed auxiliary verbs be used with all classes of main verbs? Can all of the suffixed auxiliary verbs be used with all of the "articles"?

You are aware, aren't you, that there are bivalent verbs which are not (semantically and pragmatically, at least) transitive? In English and several other languages, these are still treated syntactically as if they were transitive. For instance, with a verb of emotion or mental judgement or mental evaluation, such as "I like that"; or with a verb of sensation such as "I see that"; "I", the experiencer, is treated syntactically the same as English treats agents in more prototypically transitive clauses.
But not all languages put the Experiencer/Stimulus verbs into the Agent/Patient frame the same way. For instance, in some languages, speakers would be expected to say the equivalent of "That likes me" instead of "I like that".
(Verbs of seeking, following, or meeting, may also be considered bivalent intransitive verbs.)

You write only of active voice and passive voice in your PDF. Have you settled that that's all there will be morphologically and syntactically?

And there's lots of good stuff in the "verb" section, too.

[Rik]

It's extremely thorough, and IMO well-thought-out.

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. Very much appreciated!

This is a first draft; it's going to take a while for the ideas to settle and mature, at which time I'll do a second draft and - assuming the conlang still plays nicely - start coding up the web pages. Comments and suggestions will certainly help this work as it brews.

The nine verb-classes are also great. They're something like Vendler classes, as you pointed out, and something like aktionsarts. You mentioned verbs having cases; I haven't seen that yet. Did you mean these classes? Your verb-classes are like genders, because the articles (and maybe also other words) must agree with them.

It should be "classes". Neither nouns nor verbs modify for grammatical case.

Your verb-articles encode "relative tense" or "anteriority", as well as "retrospective" (or "perfect") and a "subjunctive modality" (or "relative clause modality"; I'm not sure the verb-articles are necessary for other subordinate clauses, such as complement clauses or adjunct clauses?). Ordinarily, the theory-neutral, cross-linguistic name for any word or particle that modifies a verb by telling one or more of its aspect, modality/mode/mood, polarity, tense, or voice, would be "auxiliary word", rather than "article". And the relativising word would be called a "relativiser". Why did you call them "articles" instead of "auxiliaries"? Maybe you had a good reason.

I'm trying to think like an Istran grammarian. Verb phrases 'look like' proper noun phrases which allow their articles to be dropped in certain circumstances (and also insist on having an honorific, just as the verb insists on having an auxiliary verb in a similar syntactical position), hence noun articles and verb auxiliary words got given the same name.

I haven't thought of clause conjunctions yet; I'll need to develop my thinking on verb articles further as I do that work, as the two will no doubt interact in interesting/frustrating ways ...

"Relative tense" often has "anterior" (aka "relative past"), "simultaneous" (aka "relative present"), and "posterior" (aka "relative future") values; sometimes there are more, because anterior and posterior can be modified by degrees-of-remotenes. I think your "prior article" is an "anterior auxiliary", your "concurrent article" is a "simultaneous auxiliary", and your "post article" is a "posterior auxiliary".

... like that.

The suffixed auxiliary, which you've said is an auxiliary verb, encodes irrealis (conditional or intended) mood, perfective/imperfective aspect, and telic aktionsart. So they are in fact auxiliaries; whether or not they also are auxiliary verbs, I haven't yet seen conclusive evidence either way. These suffixed auxiliary verbs also encode the speaker's relationship to the addressee; or, at least, the speaker's attitude to that relationship.

Can all of these suffixed auxiliary verbs be used with all classes of main verbs? Can all of the suffixed auxiliary verbs be used with all of the "articles"?

In theory, yes, and yes. I'll need to do some translation exercises to get a deeper feel for how the system plays and whether adding restrictions and exceptions would make for a better language.

You are aware, aren't you, that there are bivalent verbs which are not (semantically and pragmatically, at least) transitive? In English and several other languages, these are still treated syntactically as if they were transitive. For instance, with a verb of emotion or mental judgement or mental evaluation, such as "I like that"; or with a verb of sensation such as "I see that"; "I", the experiencer, is treated syntactically the same as English treats agents in more prototypically transitive clauses.
But not all languages put the Experiencer/Stimulus verbs into the Agent/Patient frame the same way. For instance, in some languages, speakers would be expected to say the equivalent of "That likes me" instead of "I like that".
(Verbs of seeking, following, or meeting, may also be considered bivalent intransitive verbs.)

Since posting the pdf I'm beginning to feel 'itchy' about the valency/transitivity ideas. I've got a good idea of what I want them to do, but don't think those sections explain it well. In particular:

- all verbs have a natural valency (1 or 2 core arguments) which can be reduced through passivisation strategies.

- but when it comes to a verb with a benefactive oblique (John gives a present TO MARY), the benefactive noun hijacks the direct object's spot and the direct object becomes oblique by being thrown to the back of the clause and acquiring a 'benefactive' (anti-benefactive?) postposition. Effectively the valency of the verb remains unchanged, even though horrible things have happened to the formerly direct object. Also, there may be an animacy hierarchy thingy going on here, determining whether or not a benefactive can perform the hijack - if it's hierarchical position is lower than the direct object's then no hijack takes place and the benefactive stays near the end of a clause marked by a (different) benefactive post-position.

The example in the pdf also covers my thoughts on intrumental 'oblique' nouns: in O Yis intrumental nouns cannot stand as a separate phrase in the clause; rather they have to modify other noun phrases - I'll need to separate this idea from the transitivity/valency stuff in the next draft.

You write only of active voice and passive voice in your PDF. Have you settled that that's all there will be morphologically and syntactically?

At the moment the two voices suffice, though that may change as I put the conlang through some more rigorous translation exercises. If my idea that to focus on an oblique the rest of the clause has to be relativised on it (using the m' relativiser rather than the relative conjunction (still in development)) fails, I'll need to reconsider the situation.

Many thanks again for the comments and questions.

[TomHChappell]

Interesting!
Keep us informed about when you've done one of these things to your more-or-less satisfaction; or if you're just ready for more comment.

[Rik]

Current development of the nativescript for the conlang:



... and some examples of the script in action:

[Ollock]

Are these "pitches" similar to what the same intonation pattern would be in English, or are they different? I presume there would be differences, as even within English there is some variation (uptalk anyone?)

[tron cat]

Awesome stuff.